Recruiting.com

Check out the latest article just written by Jim Durbin and delivered to 26,000 recruiters in the April issue of Recruiter News from HireAbility.

Also don't miss Danny Cahill's voicemail script!

Enjoy!

Craig

Ode to the Recruiter

Four months ago, I had time to relax
Oh some time off, free from e-mail from fax

Three months ago, I was still holding out
For that one perfect job, I still dreamt about

Two months ago, I was starting to find
No money for bills, and I longed for the grind

One month ago, I started to panic
Sent out more resumes! I became crazy and manic

So here’s to the recruiter, lord of my fate
Reader of the resume
Keeper of the gate

You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, Know when to walk away and know when to run...

I had a new recruiter pop into my office today because he was so excited about his first big commission check. He made more this month that he did in the last six months combined and loves recruiting. He closed 8 deals in the last 3 months! He was very concerned about how much he had to pay the IRS.

In an effort to give recruiters some help in this area, The HireAbility Recruiting Network has scheduled a free conference call seminar event on Wednesday, 12/7 @ 10am PST (1pm EST) to present Catie Fitzgerald from Financially Savvy with some year-end tax saving tips. You may be able to significantly reduce the tax bite if you make some smart moves now.

All participants will receive a free month of HireAbility Membership and a copy of “Year-end Tax Strategy: Sell Your Losers”, a guide that outlines when to axe an investment from your portfolio so you can write off the loss.

This event is limited to the first 100 attendees. Simply send a email RSVP to attend and mention you saw this on Recruiting.com.

With all the talk about tactics to reach people I thought I would prime the pump with a tip on how to get to that person your are trying to reach.Many times while trying to reach a hiring manager for a new business call you will come into contact with the executive assistant or receptionist. Usually these are the people that can help you to determine if your target is the right person for you to contact.

First you will have to make a good impression in order to win their cooperation. You will need to be friendly, have a good greeting, and to be sincere. You should not act familiar, patronizing, or arrogant. Treat him/her as an equal.  If you are having trouble getting around the gatekeeper, you may need to check your attitude. Many people talk down to receptionists, consider them to be unimportant and think their job it to keep people out.

If you treat gatekeepers as you would like to be treated you will find that they can be key to your making contact with the people you are trying to get in touch with. If the gatekeeper won't let you in, you can also try to call when they are not there. Call during lunch hour or after 5 pm when you are more likely to catch your target contact directly. Calling into the sales department is a good idea as well since they are easy to get on the phone and will most likely tell you everything you need to know about anything you want to ask about.

Don't forget to smile, have fun, be honest, and to say, "thank you".

Craig

HireAbility.com - The Recruiting Network

While networking it is helpful to ask questions that are not sales-oriented in any way. You need to think about questions that are fun to answer and that will tell you something about the people you are meeting with. Below are a few questions that you might ask when appropriate based on the conversation. You will notice that these questions are open-ended and designed to get others talking while you listen.

• How did you get started in the business? People like to be seen as stars in someone else's mind.

• What differentiates your company from the competition? This question gives them permission to brag.

• What do you see as a new coming trend in your business? Allow your contacts to share their knowledge with you.

• What do you enjoy most about your work? People like to talk about the things that make them feel good.

• What advice do you have for someone new to the industry or just starting out? Give your contacts an opportunity to be a mentor.

• What is the strangest or funniest thing that you have experienced in your business? People love to share their war stories.

Remember, you usually only get to ask a couple of questions during a networking event or at a first meeting with a new contact.

Get out there, smile, and have some fun. Getting to know people is a great way to enhance your recruiting career!

Craig

HireAbility is pleased to announce our next Recruiting Best Practices webinar, presented by Lou Adler, CEO of The Adler Group, titled "How to Tame Your Hiring Managers".

This webinar is presented free of charge. However, you must register by sending an RSVP. Date: Tuesday, October 11, 2005,  Time: 10:00am PDT (1:00pm EDT)

Join Lou Adler to learn the inside secrets of working with hiring managers. If you have ever experienced any of these problems this is one free online workshop you won’t want to miss:

All attendees will get an introduction to Lou’s performance-based hiring concepts and a free guide to preparing performance profiles. This information-packed guidebook includes sample performance profiles for a sales manager, mid-level software developer and first level manager. Performance profiles are the difference makers. You’ll find out why in this free online workshop. Don’t miss it.

Take this test to see if you can tell the serial killers from the computer programmers.

Recruiters have to talk to people, interview candidates, and check references to learn more than just what shows up on a resume.

Craig Silverman
Hireability

Last week 40 staffing & HR professionals from across the entire U.S. got together via conference call to form a group to help in the effort find victims of Hurricane Katrina new jobs.

The group has developed into an advisory board and created several committees that we are in the process of building.  To help with communications we have started a new Yahoo Group called recruiters4katrina, we invite you to join the effort.

After receiving hundreds of responses to the open letter "A Call to Action" that went out to nearly 50,000 staffing professionals, CBS news in San Francisco contacted us about doing a story. It aired last week, an archive can be found on the CBS News website.

Many thanks to Jason Davis and everyone at recruiting.com for your support. Together we are moving in a positive direction and will help some people.

HireAbility is offering free job postings for recruiters and hiring mangers willing to help find work for those affected by Hurricane Katrina. Just visit our website at www.hireability.com When registering, the word "Katrina" needs to go in the "How did you hear about HireAbility" field on the Recruiter Registration page. You'll need to enter a credit card, but we won't charge it if "Katrina" is written in that field.  To post a job for Katrina victims, the word "Katrina" needs to also be in the job description. Free resume posting is also be made available for easy database searchs of those in need. Help us to spread the word.Craig SilvermanHireAbility

KATRINA – A Call to Action for Recruiters and Human Resources professionals

We have to act and do it now to help the people affected by Hurricane Katrina. Our jobs as professionals are to help people. Since many of the people I am able to contact can have great impact on their organizations, I am putting out this call for aid. With your help we can quickly raise over $1,000,000,000 (yes, one billion dollars) and help people to find work to support their families.

We have so many large and successful firms in our great country that could easily write a check for $10 Million dollars. Every person in every Human Resources department in America needs to get up right now and walk into their CEO’s office and ask, "What are we doing to help?" The entire Fortune 500 for example can stand together and each donates $5 Million and we would have $2.5 Billion. It’s time to give something back.

As the people who support people for a living it is our duty to act quickly to help the people in the affected gulf coast areas. This natural disaster is way beyond what any of us could have ever imagined. This is a call to action, a grass roots effort to mobilize our industry to immediately begin funding raising efforts. President Bush just stated on national television to donate to the American Red Cross as our top priority.

Don’t just sit there. Do something! Be the person who helps put your company into action today. I have direct contact to over 50,000 Recruiters and Human Resources people that are going to see this message and together we can have a big impact. HireAbility will soon be providing free job posting to hiring managers wanting to hire and a free resume posting service for any job seekers looking for work on our website.

Let’s get creative! I am putting together an HR/Staffing industry advisory board to work on this project. If you are interested in participating please contact me.

Please also help to spread the word by forwarding this message to your contact list, posting this on blogs, forums, etc.

Many thanks for your support in this effort. I am confident in you and your organizations and look forward to seeing what we can do to help the people who desperately need it. Send me a reply with you vote of support or post a comment here to show your statement of support publically along with your success story to share with others.

Craig Silverman

posted by Craig Silverman

If you want to start your own recruiting agency there are a few things you need to think about. Sure, anyone who can buy a box of business cards can start to pitch hiring managers for open job orders.

There are many forms your business can take on. Some agencies only offer perm placement on a contingency basis. Others provide executive search and ask for up front retainers. Still others provide contractors for temporary assignments. What are you going to focus on? What is your geographical coverage area, what is your niche staffing market expertise?

You will need to think about getting signed fee agreements, recruiting top candidates, job board advertising, resume databases, applicant tracking systems (ATS), billing & collections, contracts, agreements, training, etc.  When you work for a large agency all of this is provided for you. When you hang your own shingle you are on your own to figure things out.

One option is to join a network of recruiters. HireAbility for example is a network that provides members with a web-based ATS, resume database, back office services, job postings, a team to do splits with, motivation, sales meetings, training, etc.

Two woodsmen had a contest to see who could chop the most wood. One guy is a big 275 pounder and the other is small. The big looks at his competition and thinks, "There's no way he can beat me."

The contest lasts for eight hours. Every 45 minutes the smaller fellow takes a break. He just leaves and head offs somewhere. The big guy thinks, "There's no way he can beat me."

When they chop the wood is piled into separate stacks. At the end of the day the piles are measured. Guess what? The little guy chopped twice as much wood as the big guy.

The big guy gets furious. He can't believe it. He say to the little guy, "I don't understand. I am twice your size and strength, every 45 minutes you take a break. How did you cheat and beat me?'

The smaller guy says, I didn't cheat. It was easy to beat you because every 45 minutes, when you thought I was off taking a break, I was out back sharpening my ax."

That's what the story is all about: Staying sharp. Many recruiters forget to stick the the basics they learned early in their career and get too smart. What are you doing to sharpen your skills? Are you organized, persistent, and honest? Are you making an keeping your commitments? Are you a good listener? What books are you reading? What training events are you attending? What organizations are you particpating in?

Happy Recruiting...

Craig Silverman

HireAbility - The Recruiter Network

I speak to many recruiters each week and see tons of job orders coming across my desk. Rarely do you see the same format or presentation of information. Every job search is different and with that recruiters tend to include different points in their fee agreements. Understanding the big difference between a contingency agreements and retained is a start.

For the purposes of this post let's focus on a contingency fee agreement. Here are a few things to get the ball rolling. Take this opportunity to comment back with your thoughts and to learn from some of the experienced recruiters out there

• What is your Fee %?
• What guarantee do you offer?
• What are your payment terms?
• For how long do you protect your candidate submittals?
• What other important points does your agreement contain?

HireAbility is pleased to announce the next in our series of Recruiting Best Practice Webinars sponsored by LinkedIn.This webinar is presented by the CEO of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman, titled "Recruiting and Social Networking".

Register at this link: http://www.formdesk.com/linkedin/webinar_ceo_hoffman

Topic:Using social and professional networking to enhance your recruiting effectiveness.

Date: Wednesday, August 17, 2005
Time: 11:30am PDT (2:30pm EDT)

Come join Reid Hoffman, founder and CEO of LinkedIn, as he discusses the history of social networking and how it applies to recruiting today. This is a great chance to ask one of the world’s foremost authorities how you can use the power of social networking to find, vet, and hire the best passive candidates on the Web! It’s also your chance to get an early demonstration of LinkedIn’s new product, especially for recruiters.

The July Issue of "Recruiter News" is now available on-line containing news & Information for Independent, Staffing Agency, and Corporate Recruiters.

Want to learn what Virtual Recruiting is all about? This issue was shipped yesterday to 25,000 recruiters, HR & staffing professionals.

Check it out and subscribe to receive future issues and invitations to free recruiting training webinars with top presenters such as Danny Cahill, Bill Radin, and Shally Steckerl.

Enjoy!

Craig Silverman
www.sarahinfo.com

It is no coincidence that the best closers are the most effective salespeople in the recruiting business. These people:

• Ask the tough questions
• Qualify objectives, requirements, and desires of both the candidate and the hiring manger
• Understand both parties and their values
• Lead the parties through the process in a professional manner.

To close a placement you need cooperation from both the client and candidate. Parts of the process will include negotiating and listening to help you identify any needs or concerns.

It takes 3 things to be successful in sales - Attitude, Effort, and a good process to guide you. What is your placement process?

Do you feel lucky?

Craig Silverman, HireAbility

Everyday I speak with people that refer to themselves as recruiters... It's funny that after closer review just how different types of recruiters there actually are. Some recruiters only work with finding candidates for open jobs, some only work on executive positions on a retainer, some recruiters don't actually recruit and spend their time sourcing candidates for other recruiters, some work internally others at agencies or on their own, some search the web for candidates while others prefer to exclusively direct recruit or headhunt for their clients, some work on perm jobs and others only work temporary/contract openings. Still we all are connected under the title of Recruiter. What kind of a Recruiter are you?

- Craig

Hello! I'm Craig Silverman from HireAbility.

Research shows that it takes much less time and effort to recruit a referred candidate or make a placement on a job order from a referred hiring manager.

To be more productive on your recruiting desk you have to:

Make social & business contacts: People want to work with people they like. You have business cards, give them out. Jump on LinkedIn and upload your contacts from Outlook to join your network.

Keep in touch: Once you make a good contact don't forget about them. Existing  clients and candidates are your prime referral source.

Remember the ones you lost: Many candidates who you do not place and hiring manager prospects who don't hire from you can be eager to reward you if you have done a good job in understanding their needs.

If you don't ask you won't get: Dedicate some time in your daily schedule to make some calls specifically to ask contacts for referrals. Remember to ask for a referral at the end of each recruiting call or client visit.

You can easily double your production if you increase your number of referrals. Get out there and make it happen! The longer you wait the colder the trail gets.